Top 10 TV cops: Crime does pay if you’ve got the ratings

“Funny cops and comic heroes are on deck for the new TV season,” said Joanne Ostrow, TV critic for the Denver Post, referring to shows like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (with Andy Samberg) and Joss Whedon’s “Agents of SHIELD.”

But cops, detectives and law-enforcement agents of every stripe have been pounding TV beats since the small screen’s inception. Even before “Dragnet” made the jump from radio to TV in 1951, television shows like “Man Against Crime” (1949-1956), “Martin Kane, Private Eye” (1949-1954) and “Racket Squad” (1951-1953) were letting viewers know that crime doesn’t pay–unless you’re a TV producer.

Despite the profusion of crime fighters, the crimes just keep on coming. In fact, the evil doers seem to get decidedly more evil as time goes on. More of the dirty work is shown on screen, too. Violence, bloodshed and disfigured bodies stretched out in the morgue are all par for the course these days.

All of which leads us to another list: the top TV cops of all time (so far)

10–Inspector Philip Gerard (Barry Morse). He spent four years looking for Richard Kimble (David Janssen) on “The Fugitive” but finally got his man — and it wasn’t Kimble.

9–Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub). A detective with a defect but a lovable one. Monk took a formula (first perfected in number-eight on this list) where the audience knows whodunnit but stayed tuned to see how the persnickety hero handled things.

8–Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk). He of the rumpled raincoat and wretched car. “And just one more thing…”

6–Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). OK, “NCIS” details a military band who solve serious crimes every week but, even if he’s technically not a cop, Harmon has to get credit for 10 years of ratings success.

5–Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). Talk about staying power. The daughter of Jayne Mansfield has been solving TV crimes on “Law & Order SVU” since 1999.

4–Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas). Like Raymond Burr, known for being TV’s Perry Mason not the serious heavy he played for so many years, Savalas, a villain in many of his movie roles, turned things around as a bald cop with a lollipop.

3–Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord). The man who brought order to the 50th state. “Hawaii Five-O” also had one of the best theme songs.

2–Jim Rockford (James Garner). Another good theme song but Garner’s portrayal of the trailer-hanging private eye, loose in 1970s California, has to rank as one of TV’s finest — and most believable — characterizations ever. TV cop Dennis Becker (Joe Santos) also deserves mention.

1–Joe Friday (Jack Webb). Not only did Webb take a cop show and grow it into an iconic franchise but he turned in one of the greatest tributes to film noir of all time with radio’s “Pat Novak, For Hire” (1949).

Author: Steve Tarter

Born in England, raised in Boston, I'm a Midwestern transplant who's called Peoria home for the past 40 years. Married with four grown children, I enjoy journalism, film noir and radio drama. As the song goes, I like coffee; I like tea. Former president of the Apollo Theater in Downtown Peoria, I'm looking for a new raison d'etre.
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Mariska is a really autênctica daughter of Jayne Mansfield. She is as beautiful as your mother. And even behind the trousers and jackets shows all your fri-appeal. But the question here is Olivia Benson, a policewoman that combines strength, courage, determination to arrest criminals, the extreme sensitivity and solidarity with the victims. Love them both.